The burning question everyone (me) has been dying to know -
What does Carlos have going on in there?
Well, back up a minute - for that matter what does LJ have going on in there? (Carlos' mom) - and of course, LJ's surprisingly different-looking full brother Ector, as well.
They hatched here, too. And with some certainty we can say, at least, what their father, Mr Spurs, had going on. He was a black-tailed buff japanese bantam, and he had green legs. I will assume here his genotype (looking at relevant traits) was eWh/eWh Db/Db id/id w/w p/p (single-combed).
LJ's mother, Carnation (Carlos' grandmother) was... given to me as an egg identified as a white-laced red cornish. Here is our puzzle. I believe she is only half WLR cornish. As you can see, she visually has a (sort of) pea comb and white legs.
Our clues (besides the poor lacing and distinctly un-cornish conformation) are as follows: 1) LJ and her brother both have single combs. this is a recessive trait to pea comb, indicating that Carnation must have only had one copy of pea comb (P/p), and by chance gave it to neither. 2) LJ has yellow legs, but her brother had white legs. white is the dominant trait, so I assume Carnation had one copy of each (W/w) and gave W to Ector but w to LJ. The father had yellow legs, remember, with melanin to make them appear green, so they both got a w from him. 3) Carnation was also split for dominant white (I/i), as LJ got I but her brother did not (note the color of their tail feathers). however, I believe that WLR birds are usually I/i anyway to maintain better color. but we don't really need any further proof.
So, we might guess now that both LJ and Ector had at least one Db (or maybe Co), accounting for their "_-tailed" phenotype. LJ has dominant white, and green legs (I/i w/w id/-). Ector did not have dominant white, and had white legs (i/i W/w Id/id). Id is "inhibitor of dermal melanin" and creates fully white (or yellow) legs, and is sex-linked. Carnation could only have given her Id to her male chick.
It's easy enough to explain what's going on visually with Carlos and her late brother Pedro - their father was a solid blue bird (E/E Bl/bl) so they were eumelanically extended by each having one E, and diluted to white instead of black by both receiving an I (dominant white) from LJ. Carlos (and maybe her brother) is also blue, btw, as her dark feathers are actually grey, not black. Pedro had some orange because in having only one E, he got some pheomelanin leakage (hens dont really get this). I'm not sure about their leg color - their father's legs were white with some grey markings, so they both must be W/w, but I don't know enough to explain Carlos having slate while her brother's were white.
So - what is LJ's mystery 1/4 (Carlos' 1/8)? well, I don't know. I don't even remember who gave us those eggs 14 years ago. but I've had a lot of fun retroactively figuring this out, because the confusing appearances of LJ and Ector and later Carlos and Pedro did a lot to push me towards understanding how these genes work.
